The Buried Secret of M. Night Shyamalan (2004) (TV)

User Rating:

4.8/10   

Director:

Nathaniel Kahn

Writer:

Melissa Foster (writer)

Release Date:

18 July 2004 (USA)

Genre:

Sci-Fi

Plot Keywords:

Mockumentary | Character Name In Title

Cast

Billy Arrowood	...	Himself - Location Scout
Adrien Brody	...	Himself
Deepak Chopra	...	Himself - Author
Johnny Depp	...	Himself
Sean Andrew Fash	...	Himself
Callum Greene	...	Himself
Adrian M. Hickman	...	Video Store Manager
Nathaniel Kahn	...	Himself
Maggie Kiley	...	Cecilia Meadows
Ilana Levine	...	Publicist
Brick Mason	...	Himself - Storyboard Artist
Griffin Newman	...	Teenage Fan
Chandler Parker	...	Javier Ortega
Sharon Pinkenson	...	Herself - Film Commissioner
Jicky Schnee	...	Jennifer
M. Night Shyamalan	...	Himself
Benjamin Smolen	...	Shyamalan fan
John F. Street	...	Himself - Mayor of Philadelphia
Greg Urban	...	Himself - Anthropology Professor

Also Known As:

M. Night: Portrait of a Filmmaker (USA) (working title)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Company:

Blinding Edge Pictures

Trivia:

This entire film was a mockumentary that was advertised as an unauthorized bio of reclusive director M. Night Shyamalan. After going as far as Shyamalan reporting to the press that he was upset about the release of this film, many fans and journalists became upset when they later learned it was all a hoax. The Sci-Fi channel released an apology a few days before release for their campaign strategies.

Movie Connections:

References Being There (1979)

Entertaining in a MST3K sort of way

Good in concept, poor in execution, "The Buried Secret of M. Night Shyamalan" was plagued by terrible acting, amateurish directing, and the easy comparison to "The Blair Witch Project" which did a similar type of promo on the Sci-Fi network. The 3-hour (!!) "mockumentary" was nothing more than a giant infomercial for Shyamalan's body of work and his new movie "The Village". The worst part of the film was the acting. The old woman who supposedly knew Night as a child came off like one of those old ladies you see in commercials trying to sell you life insurance. The real estate agent overacted so badly that I can't believe she wasn't recast. The believability factor of the script was also quite low. Why would the director talk to a pizza guy about M. Night Shyamalan? Why would anyone care if Johnny Depp was considered for the lead in "Signs"? If electrical equipment strangely stops working around Shyamalan, how does he work around all that equipment on a movie set? I could go on, but you get the idea. Perhaps if this movie was shorter and perhaps if the acting and script were better, this could have been a decent "horror" film along the lines of a "Twilight Zone" episode. As it turned out, it was about as scary as "Manos, the Hands of Fate".